Thursday, October 13, 2022 08:00 PM (ET)

Rangers strike early, often to spoil Wild's home opener

Field Level Media
Oct 13, 2022

Artemi Panarin posted a goal and three assists as the New York Rangers secured their second consecutive victory, a 7-3 final over the host Minnesota Wild on Thursday night in Saint Paul, Minn.

Unlike their season-opening home win over the reigning Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, when the Rangers' first line did most of the damage, their second line grabbed the headlines Thursday.

Panarin's linemates, Vincent Trocheck (one goal, one assist) and Alexis Lafreniere (two assists), each chipped in a pair of points in helping the Blueshirts earn their first road win.

Rangers forward Chris Kreider, who finished third in the race for the Rocket Richard trophy last season with 52 goals, notched a pair of goals.

Reigning Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin was solid between the pipes, turning aside 33 of 36 shots to earn his second consecutive win.

Wild netminder Marc-Andre Fleury took the loss, making 28 saves on 35 shots in a disappointing season opener for the veteran.

The Wild got behind early as the Rangers took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission. Kreider opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 4:06 on a feed from Mika Zibanejad, who took a pass from Panarin, faked a one-timer and passed it to Kreider at the right post.

Adam Fox made it 2-0 at 16:03 when he redirected a pass from Lafreniere, who set up Panarin in the slot to make it 3-0 with just 13 seconds left in the period.

Minnesota replied on a power-play tally from Mats Zuccarello at 7:45 of the second, but Filip Chytil scored for New York at 16:54 to make it 4-1.

Trocheck notched his first Rangers goal on a one-timer off a pass from Panarin to push it to 5-1 at 4:18 of the third.

Matt Boldy, who scored twice, converted a backhand from the edge of the crease to make it 5-2 at 5:16, but Kaapo Kakko answered 30 seconds later.

Matt Dumba dropped a pass to Boldy, who beat Shesterkin to cut it to 6-3 at 6:20.

Kreider tipped in a slap shot from K'Andre Miller at 14:07 to close the scoring.

--Field Level Media

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